Bakesale

Vinyl LP
Bakesale, Sebadoh’s fifth album from 1994, is typically loaded with wryly observed heartbreak, the album revolves around the Lou Barlow/Jason Loewenstein songwriting axis, the pair tag-teaming their way through a mix of crotchety, drug-fugged rockers (License to Confuse, Magnet’s Coil); bruised, slower-paced odes to loves long-since lost (Not Too Amused, Together Or Alone); and those like the dreamily shambolic Skull that fall somewhere in-between. The only exception comes in the shape of Temptation Tide, penned by newcomer Bob Fay (and co-voiced by his partner Anne Slinn), who perched atop Eric Gaffney’s still-warm drum stool for this record and the next.

As with the earlier reissues of Sebadoh III and Bubble & Scrape, this revisitation comes significantly expanded and embellished. Along with the album proper a second disc neatly compiles an array of hard-to-find EPs and straggler tracks, rescuing neophytes from dirty-thumbed fuddlings through Berwick Street used bins and allowing those who’ve grimly clung to dog-eared copies of the original singles to put them into long-overdue semi-retirement.

Barlow, in the newly-penned liner notes, suggests Bakesale isn’t the best Sebadoh album but is at least his most fondly-remembered. What can’t be denied, however, is that the album easily deserves its place in the hearts of those who admire fellow fuzzy-edged slackers Superchunk, Pavement and Guided by Voices as much as those new to the game, who’ll find echoes of the band’s sound fizzling through modern-day collegiate grungesters like Milk Music or Gun Outfit.

TRACKLISTING:

  1. License to Confuse
  2. Careful
  3. Magnet’s Coil
  4. Not a Friend
  5. Not Too Amused
  6. Dreams
  7. Skull
  8. Got It
  9. S. Soup
  10. Give Up
  11. Rebound
  12. Mystery Man
  13. Temptation Tide
  14. Drama Mine
  15. Together or Alone

RIYL: Superchunk, Pavement, Guided By Voices